Serving as Avera Health’s equivalent to a chief pharmacy officer, Dr. Johnson oversees clinical and operational hospital pharmacy services across the health system’s member hospitals, including one tertiary medical center, five regional hospitals, and 38 community and critical access hospitals across five Upper Midwest states. He also oversees laboratory and imaging services at Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, and in total leads a team of more than 700 full-time employees and an expense budget of approximately $400 million across pharmacy, laboratory and imaging. Dr. Johnson has published more than 50 abstracts, posters and peer-reviewed articles, and has delivered more than 100 local, national and international presentations. He has served in multiple leadership roles for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, including president, treasurer and board member. His accomplishments include implementing a system formulary committee, creating a centralized distribution procurement process to mitigate drug shortages, and building ambulatory care clinical pharmacy services that now include 28 pharmacists at 22 sites. He also founded and now directs Avera’s PGY-2 health system pharmacy administration and leadership residency and co-led the planning of a 65,000-square-foot pharmacy integrated services center.
